Hi, ok, thoughts…
I want to make sure that I’m not the only one who’s commenting that the extended conflict system should be faster. ‘Cause I think that any system that takes more than about twenty seconds to resolve is too slow and a break in the action, so you really shouldn’t be listening to me.
I like the “coat the system in soy sauce” solution to increasing flavor. Otherwise, the themes system already heavily supports flavor. You should have seen Jeff’s fight. It involved a katana, jumping between spaceships, and lots and lots of rose petals. Oh, and poetic one-liners from both sides between blows. I’m not entirely certain where the rose petals came from, but Jeff’s character is the sort to have fast-assembling rose petal nanites just lying around.
The trick is getting the capabilities/skills system to support /half/ that flavor. Giving bonuses for stunts may be the way to do that. Or at least good descriptors. In my worldview (admittedly a fringe one), any time a player rolls dice without talking (or with just an “I attack” or “I continue hacking”) is a problem. (Somewhat mitigatable by the GM giving descriptions based on the die results, naturally).
I haven’t experienced a “locations” system like you describe, and am curious.
A question for the existing mechanics: All weapons have a Stringtech rating. Characters have stringtech ratings that describe the amount of damage they can pump out and withstand. And biotech ratings that do much the same, at half the level. But combat is based on Nanotech+Soldier. So what are is all of the stringtech for? Put another way, I don’t care if you’re supernaturally nimble and half-cloaked; if I’m sweeping a continuous-stream inversion beam over your general location the buildings around you are exploding. You might be able to avoid a direct hit, but you’re still getting peppered with chunks of building and gamma radiation.
… Unless you’re in Mechanica, whereas the buildings are just getting scorched and I’ve got police hovercopters coming after me. Each with enough firepower to level a city.
Anyway, I’d recommend the difference in stringtech (half biotech) in an armed conflict to feed into reserve loss at least. And maybe let characters with high enough stringtech ignore certain damage. A guy shooting a pistol at a heavily upgraded mechanican isn’t going to dent her, even if she doesn’t try to defend herself.
Complications… hmm… already losing a combat is like a complication. The other guy gets to do whatever they want to you, which sums up many of the existing complications.
I really do hate dice steps. And like the current multiplication system quite a lot. It does a wonderful job of making higher stat characters just trump less able characters.
Mmmm… root beer mind.
I’ve run the one-long extended conflict session. With repeated downgrades and upgrades along the system. You were there. Except that I wasn’t using the extended conflict rules ‘cause I’m not entirely comfortable with them.
(I think it went: Research Blitz interrupted by War interrupted by something (Infiltration?) interrupted by Philosophical Debate interrupted by shooting the guy. Which chained back up again.)
I think my problem with the conflict system as it stands is a few fold. First, rolling dice and losing a few reserve is relatively bland. Part of my problem is that there are often times where it’s optimal to just fail the roll, because the reserve loss for failing would be less than the reserve cost to get the roll to pass, which just bothers me. One possible simple solutions is:
- players get bonuses and penalties to their rolls. Big weapons are big bonuses. The attacker rolls first and spends reserve. The defender then rolls vs. the attacker’s result. The defender must meet the attacker’s result, or lose the conflict, so (s)he needs to spend reserve to get there. Optionally, defensive reserve expenditure isn’t capped (unlike in all other rolls).
Second, there are a lot of different conflict types each with their own bonuses and penalties. There is no way I’m going to remember them all, and if I can’t have them memorized I simply won’t use them ‘cause looking something up mid-game is anathema to me. So, instead, I just read them and use them as a framework to approximate things. It’s still useful to me, and other people may actually use them as designed, but be aware that I can’t play by those numbers.
As with all of my opinions, keep in mind that I’m fringe. If you only do what I suggest, you’ll end up with a game that I’d love and most people would loath.